School Newsletter 24th November 2023

Greetings, Kia ora, Kia orana, Talofa, Mālō e lelei,  Namaste, Ni Hao, Bula, Hola, Kumusta, Namaskārām,
Sat Shri Akaal, Vanakkam and Ayubowan

Dear Families

This week we can share the photos of our beautiful sacred space/prayer garden as it reaches its last stages of completion! This lovely garden will become our ‘Holy place’ –  a visual symbol of our faith, a place of prayer, a place to meditate, a place to spend time with God, a place to sit peacefully and enjoy God’s creation flourishing, a place to sit in silence, a place to speak from our hearts and to listen to what God is saying and a place to foster our relationship with God through prayer and reflection.

Jesus, Himself would seek time alone to pray to His father: “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (Mark 1:35). His actions served as a guide for us to spend time alone with our Heavenly Father.

How truly special and wonderful to have our own ‘Holy place’ which we have created together through the hard work and dedication of our Holy Trinity school community – fundraising over 3 years to bring our sacred space/prayer garden to fruition. A BIG THANK YOU once again to our PTFA team who have ‘poured their hearts and souls’ into making the prayer garden a reality and to our School Board for their constant practical and financial support and encouragement of the PTFA team. We are so proud of you all!

Grateful thanks to the folk at Playscape – James, Lara, Josh, Tony and the onsite team for their careful, considerate, creative and collaborative ideas, design, build and installation. We are so proud of you, too!

This is a lovely way to end our school year, knowing we have all worked together to create a beautiful visual sign in our environment that reflects who we are as a school faith community.  We look forward to ‘blessing’ our sacred space/prayer garden at one of our school community evening events in these coming weeks. A more formal ‘Opening’ will be planned for the new year!

Term 4 Special Events and Activities

CORRECTION: (apologies for causing any double bookings!)

Please note the correct days and dates for the:
Cultural Groups Celebrations Performances – all Year 3-8 students 5:00-6:30pm @ school is
Wednesday 6th December

Family Picnic and Nativity Liturgy celebrations performed by Year 0/1/2 students 5:00pm – 7:00pm @ school is Thursday 14th December

Please save the date for these ‘end of Term 4’ celebrations events and activities. These are all family/whānau events and we are delighted to warmly welcome our school families and wider school community to be part of each special event and activity where we celebrate who we are as a catholic school – rejoicing in our catholic faith, our students achievements and our school’s achievements from throughout 2023.

Wednesday 29th November
Year 6/7/8 Leavers and Families Mass @ St Mary’s Church, Papakura  6:30pm with a shared finger food supper and presentations to follow at HTCPS in Taamaua/School Hall

Monday 4th December
Liturgy and Assembly for Other Leavers and Service/Leadership Awards 9:00am @ school

Wednesday 6th December
Cultural Groups Celebrations Performances – all Year 3-8 students 5:00-6:30pm @ school

Friday 8th December
Praise-giving Awards Afternoon 12:30pm @ school in Taamaua/School Hall

Tuesday 12th December
End of Year School Mass/Acknowledgement of Leavers 9:15am @ school followed by ‘School Helpers’ morning tea

Thursday 14th December
Family Picnic and Nativity Liturgy celebrations performed by Year 0/1/2 students 5:00pm – 7:00pm @ school

DRS Report

Reconciliation with Father Nathaniel

On Tuesday 21 November, our senior students spent the afternoon with Father Nathaniel of St Mary’s Parish, Papakura leading Reconciliation time with them. It was a beautiful liturgy with a time of reflection, repentance and prayer. Father Nathaniel spoke about the immeasurable mercy and love of God who always forgives us in our shortcomings, no matter how many times we fail. We continue to pray for our senior students as they spend their final few weeks together before they move on to college. We also continue to pray for our priest, Father Nathaniel, for his spiritual guidance of our school Parish in Papakura.

Student Leavers Mass

Next Wednesday 29 November, we will have a special Leavers Mass at St Mary’s Church, Papakura at 6:30pm. Father Nathaniel Brazil of St Mary’s Parish, Papakura will celebrate this Mass to farewell for the first time, a very big number of Holy Trinity senior students. Our leavers will receive their leavers’ pendants and a special blessing at the Mass. After the Mass, we will continue our celebrations in Taamaua/school hall with shared food, speeches and presentations.

End of Year School Mass

On Tuesday 12 December, our school will be gathering together in Taamaua/school hall at 9:15am to celebrate our final school Mass with Father Nathaniel Brazil of St Mary’s Papakura. Students and kaitiaki from Pompallier and Aubert Whānau will be leading this special celebration as we give thanks to God for another year of many blessings – we have much to be thankful for. We invite all our school families and friends to join us on this day.

2024 Learning Communities Structure

Digital Online Reporting

We are looking forward to sharing our term’s learning with our families including individual students’ achievement levels in reading, writing and maths.  Teachers/Kaitiaki and students have completed assessments and recording evidence of their progress and achievement to share with families through the HERO online parent portal. Reporting information will be published for families to access online from Monday 11th December. If you are unsure of how to access the HERO parent portal, please call in to the school office for support with accessing the link and setting up of a password.

We will not be holding Mahi Tahi Conferences this term. Teachers/kaitaki have been proactive in making contact with whānau of students who have been part of our target and accelerant learning groups so that we are able to report specifically on students’ individual goals progress and achievement over this term.

Enjoy reading through and sharing the HERO online reporting comments with your child/ren so that together you can celebrate learning successes and the positive personal growth and development that has occurred across the school year.

Teaching and Learning News

Duffy Theatre Visit

On Monday 20 November, we had our very first Duffy Theatre visit. It was fun to see Duffy explore space and meet some friendly aliens. Thankfully he had books to help him find his way back to Earth. There were a lot of laughs and shouts of excitement during the performance from our junior tamariki – it was lovely to see them so engaged.

Learning Community News

Learning Community Whenua

Over the past 2 weeks the children in LC Whenua have been visiting the sacred space  construction site and have watched the progress with great interest. After each stage they drew and wrote about what they saw, what they heard, what equipment was used and what they would use the space for. They will continue writing about how they will use the sacred space purposefully and with respect.

For Social Science, the tamariki have been sharing their family Christmas traditions. The whānau engagement has been fantastic. Thank you families!It has been wonderful for all the children to learn how different cultures celebrate Christmas.

Learning Community Awa

Learning Community Awa have been enjoying learning about the Christmas Nativity story and participating in Nativity-themed writing and art activities. It is fantastic to see just how confident the tamariki are in sharing the details of this story and understanding its important meaning. We continue to share our gift of singing by practising our Christmas nativity songs daily. We surely do have wonderful talent in our learning community!

Awa has also had the great opportunity to see the development of our HTCPS prayer garden. The children have enjoyed making sketches of this space as well as completing a writing activity about it. We are all looking forward to spending time in our special prayer garden.

Learning Community Moana

In Learning Community Moana we have been learning about Advent. We have been identifying the different symbols for Advent and the meaning behind the use of the different colours. We have created our very own Advent wreaths to help us reflect on this special Liturgical season as it approaches.  

We have also been using our design thinking and measurement skills to create a plan of a musical instrument. We can’t wait to test out our design next week when we enter the ‘creating’ stage. We are extremely excited to play our musical instruments to the songs we have been writing as our songs share special messages that inspire mana in others and strengthen community.

Learning Community Maunga

As the seasons merge from Spring to Summer we are reminded of the seasons that change in our Liturgical Calendar. The Season of Advent is fast approaching and officially begins in the first week of December. We have reflected on ways we are inspired and can inspire others through symbols that have become tradition in many countries.

We recall the events which led to the preparation of the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ. First with the journey Mary and Joseph undertook as written in the scriptures. Learners captured the events depicted by silhouettes with their own recount of each step toward Bethlehem then with a countdown beginning from the 1st of December until the 24th of December.  Learners have been inspired to design their own version of a calendar by recycling everyday items. As you lift the tab of each number you are encouraged to pause as you reflect on the verse inscribed by a designer, our learners. Take a moment to think about what this time means to you as you prepare during Advent.

Finally, we designed a creative way to countdown incorporating the colour purple-which has traditionally been the primary colour of Advent. It is the colour of royalty and the sovereignty of Christ. The presence of purple demonstrates the anticipation of the coming King.

Advent is coming!

Strawberry Farm Visit

Last Friday, some learners had the opportunity to go on a trip to Jimmy’s Ice Cream on Ardmore Road.  This trip was organised by Allwin Shaji, our school social worker, to recognise the time and effort these students put into being a part of different social groups at school, e.g. Circle Time, IBOX and Seasons for Growth.  It was a time for students to get to know their peers outside of school in a social setting that was relaxing and fun.  The students picked strawberries and enjoyed a delicious ice cream afterwards.    

Hauora/WellBeing News

Peer Mediation

One of the kaupapa (strategies) the senior students have been learning about is being able to ask different types of questions. Being able to ask different kinds of questions is important because it can help you find out what is going on in a conflict much more quickly, and then find a solution more quickly too.

Two types of questions we have been looking at are…

Open-ended: questions that require a detailed answer and lots of thinking e.g., “Why did you like that book?” or “What do you think is the best solution to this problem?”

Closed: questions that can be answered in only a limited way e.g., “Do you like pizza?” or “What colour is the sky?”

Open-ended questions are great because they encourage lots of thinking and problem-solving and get conversations going. Closed questions tend to do the opposite. They are important for some situations, like gathering information for research, but when you are trying to solve conflict, open-ended questions are more likely to help.

To learn more about how to encourage your child to ask open-ended questions, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGhk3w9gclA

Sports News

North Counties Athletics

Five of our Year 7/8 students attended and participated in the North Counties Athletics day held at Massey Park Papakura on Wednesday 15 November. Well done to Marija Levkovska, David Aiesi, Norma Stephens and Rosaria Soo Choon for participating and representing our school on the day.
Special congratulations goes to Emereziana Lautua who came 1st in Discus, 1st in Shot Put and 1st in the 200 metres for the Year 8 girls heat. Emereziana went on to represent the North Counties cluster at the Counties level Athletics Day held on Tuesday 21 November in which she came 1st in Discus, 1st in Shot Put and 4th in the 200 metres. We are proud of her achievements and excited to see her move forward to the next level to represent Counties at the AAIMS Athletics Day held at Mouth Smart in Penrose on Thursday 30 November. We wish her all the best!

Northern Brave Girls Cricket

Last week, some Year 5 and 6 girls had the opportunity to attend a Super Smash Northern Brave Cricket Tournament at Bruce Pulman Park hosted by Northern Districts Cricket. What an amazing day the girls had playing at least 5 games of non-stop cricket where each girl had the chance to field, bat and bowl. Although exhausted at the end of the day, each one was pleased with the effort they put in as a team, showing resilience, and making new friends from other schools along the way. For their effort, each student was presented with a certificate of participation and for team spirit. Thank you to the whānau who came out to support them on the day. It is much appreciated.

School Organisation

sKids Holiday Programme

Please find attached the programme overview for sKids Holiday Programme – end of December 2023 and January 2024.

Holy Trinity Summer HP 2023-School (1)

School Term Dates for 2024

Term One    11 weeks     Thursday 1st February – Friday 12th April 

Term Two     10 weeks     Monday 29th April  – Friday 5th July

Term Three   10 weeks     Monday 22nd July – Friday 25th September 

Term Four     9 weeks       Monday 14th October – Tuesday 17th December

PUBLIC HOLIDAYS 2024 :

Term 1 – Week 2 Tuesday 6th February Waitangi Day

Term 1 – Week 9/Week 10  Friday 29th March to Tuesday 2nd April EASTER

Term 2 – Week 6 Monday 3rd June King’s Birthday

Term 2 – Week 9 Friday 28th June Matariki

Term 4 – Week 3 Monday 28th October Labour Day

Upcoming School Events

Year 6/7/8 Leavers and Families Mass @ St Mary’s Church, Papakura  6:30pm
with a shared finger food supper and presentations to follow at HTCPS in Taamaua/School Hall
Wednesday 29th November @ 6:30pm – 9:00pm 

Liturgy and Assembly for Other Leavers and Service/Leadership Awards 
Monday 4th December @ 9:15am in Taamaua/school hall

Cultural Groups Celebration Performances – all Year 3-8 students
Wednesday 6th December 5:00-6:30pm @ school

Praise-giving Awards Afternoon
Friday 8th December 12:30pm @ school in Taamaua/school hall

HERO Digital Student Achievement Reporting – available online
From Monday 11th December 

End of Year School Mass/Acknowledgement of Other Leavers
Tuesday 12th December 9:15am @ school followed by ‘School Helpers’ morning tea

School Board Monthly Meeting
Wednesday 13th December 7:00pm @ school staffroom

Family Picnic and Nativity Liturgy celebrations performed by Year 0/1/2 students
Thursday 14th December 5:00pm-7:00pm at school

Term 4 Concludes for the 2023 year at 1:00pm
Monday 18th December

Upcoming Community Events

Papakura Christmas Events …

Carols in the Park, Santa Parade, Chilling in the Park and Santa Grotto and so much more …

SH1 Papakura to Drury Community Information Day